OR sustainability: A holistic system understanding
How do surgical gloves affect sustainability and the global environment?
For healthcare companies to improve their environmental impact, one step would be to understand how single-use products, such as surgical gloves, influence that impact.
In this episode
How can companies square their sustainability targets with single-use surgical products, such as surgical gloves? What does sustainability mean? Different material and manufacturing choices and how their impact is measured have a real effect on the planet.
Speaking the same language
Whether it’s a lifecycle assessment (LCA) or disclosure standards, sustainability is only understandable and achievable if everyone within the value chain aligns on measuring and sharing data and metrics in the same way.
Holistic system understanding
Rather than dealing with isolated data points, it’s critical to understand an entire system. A holistic approach to improvement will consider production methods, renewability and recyclability of materials, the energy expended during production, the carbon footprint of transport, packaging and product end of life.
There’s a long sustainability journey ahead to accurately measure and understand the holistic environmental impact of healthcare delivery.
Get in touch to find out more Visit the Clinical Learning Hub
Hands & gloves podcast
Hands and gloves hold many of the critical keys to infection prevention, operating room (OR) efficiency and surgical best practices. Hear more from your peers about OR practices, gloving and other surgical glove-related topics in the podcast series Hands & gloves.
Listen to all episodesRelated articles
Read all-
Gloves | 2 min read Strategies for active OR quality improvement
Using improvement science to drive change in the operating room
-
Gloves | 4 min read Double gloving for complete protection
In discussion with surgeons and other operating room (OR) staff, such as surgical nurses, safety for their patients and for themselves is a key concern.
-
Gloves | 1 min read Balancing practice and theory in the OR
Swedish OR nurses’ preventive interventions to reduce bacterial growth and SSIs, and to increase comfort in patients undergoing surgery
-
Gloves | 2 min read The role of chemicals in medical gloves
Challenges and opportunities with chemicals in surgical gloves: meeting customer expectations
-
Gloves | 1 min read The new generation of (NRL) surgical gloves
Surgical gloves and raw materials – time for reappraisal?
-
Gloves | 2 min read Protocol to practice: Single to double gloving
How to implement a double gloving protocol in practice
-
Gloves | 2 min read Culture of operating room (OR) safety: Double gloving for effective hand protection
Improving surgical gloving practice
-
Gloves | 2 min read Cochrane reviews on double gloving
The efficacy of double gloving in reducing the risk of an inner-glove perforation and increase the detection of perforations when they occur has been evaluated in two different Cochrane systematic reviews¹,².
-
Gloves | 2 min read The dangers of powder in surgical gloves
The dangers of powder in surgical gloves have long been known and well-documented. Eliminating the use of glove powder can help eliminate several adverse health effects that may result from its use, such as postoperative adhesions, granulomas, wound contamination and delayed wound healing 1 2.
-
References
- Shared value: https://www.sharedvalue.org/about/what-is-shared-value/
- Carbon Disclosure Project: https://www.cdp.net/en
- EcoVadis: https://ecovadis.com/
- United Nations Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/
- Life Cycle Assessment: https://sphera.com/glossary/what-is-a-life-cycle-assessment-lca/
- The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (and scopes 1,2,3): https://ghgprotocol.org/
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): https://www.carbontrust.com/news-and-insights/insights/corporate-sustainability-reporting-directive-csrd-explained
- Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards: https://www.globalreporting.org/
- Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and standard for Net Zero: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
- Baxter NB, Yoon AP, Chung KC. Variability in the Use of Disposable Surgical Supplies: A Surgeon Survey and Life Cycle Analysis. J Hand Surg Am. 2021 Dec;46(12):1071-1078. https://www.jhandsurg.org/action/showPdf?pii=S0363-5023%2821%2900364-6
- Drew J, Christie SD, Tyedmers P, Smith-Forrester J, Rainham D. Operating in a Climate Crisis: A State-of-the-Science Review of Life Cycle Assessment within Surgical and Anesthetic Care. Environ Health Perspect. 2021 Jul;129(7):76001. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8274692/pdf/ehp8666.pdf